he false notion that opioids are safe, effective treatments for chronic pain was inculcated by the companies that manufacture them, with self-styled "experts" preaching this gospel to front-line physicians. Incredibly, this happened in the absence of good evidence that the benefits of long-term opioid use outweigh the risks.

We support generic pharmaceutical products in this country, but in the case of oxycodone generic, and now a generic treatment for opioid addiction by a company who is one of the biggest producers and marketers of prescription pain killers in the country, we can't help but think that patients and physicians are getting played by their governments, and at a huge human cost.

For weeks now, Ontario's Minister of Health, Deb Matthews, has been trading barbs with federal Health Minister, Leona Aglukkaq, over whether or not she should intervene in Health Canada's decision to approve the generic version of the painkiller oxycodone. As this debate plays out and the attention starts to focus on the intergovernmental conflict instead of the important public health debate, we must not lose sight of three simple facts.

If we in Canada want to prevent more accidental deaths, we should launch a high profile national initiative to address a situation described, by the normally cautious College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, as an "opioid public health crisis."